The Malay house is distinctive by its composition of several buildings clustered with respect to its main unit. This study attempts to explore the formation rules of this type and its variations from both a spatial and construction point of view. More than 200 houses in the nine states of Peninsula Malaysia are examined and divided into five groups for detailed analysis and comparison. All Malay houses under study can be produced by five sets of rules and their sub-rules, which act as a descriptive language as well as a generating mechanism. The rule system is organized in three layers that can account for the transformations of local styles in Peninsula Malaysia, which may reveal stimulating information regarding the evolutionary relations among Malay house types.